TravelDailyNews: What are your expectations for your tourism industry in 2006?

Monica Carolina Armesto, Corporate Communications TNZ: The forecast for International Visitor Arrivals, 2005 – 2011 to New Zealand grew by 10.9% in 2004, following an increase of 2.9% in 2003. In the last five years, New Zealand has been doing incredibly well in terms of international visitor arrivals growth. Growth at the beginning of 2006 has been a bit slower, but we still had the biggest February arrivals figures ever.

We expect the year to be consistent with this trend – perhaps not double digit growth, and some drops, but overall, the exchange rate changes in New Zealand’s favour, plus some major campaigns we are running in our key markets should help our visitor numbers to remain steady. The places our visitors go is changing, so we may see an increase in visits to the regions of New Zealand, visitors spreading themselves across the country more than they used to, with the flow-on benefits of tourism consequently also being felt more by the regions.

Around 65% of the total growth in arrivals was driven through the Australian market in 2004 - attributable largely to the continued reduction in trans-Tasman airfares.

The low cost airline model is being adopted throughout the world resulting in significantly reducing air fares, particularly on short-haul routes out of Europe and Asia. This will increase the attractiveness of some short-haul destinations served by low cost airlines relative to New Zealand, and may result in some loss of market share.

Nevertheless, total arrivals to New Zealand are expected to increase by an average of 4.7% per annum over the forecast period. At this rate total arrivals will reach 2.45m in 2005, 2.81m in 2008 and 3.21m by 2011. This represents an overall increase of 875,000 arrivals over the next 7 years, or 38%.

TDN: How does the competition in the region affect your destination policy? Who are your main competitors?

M.A.: Our main competitors are Australia, Namibia, South America, Vietnam, Canada and South Africa however New Zealand has a very unique offering. We have a ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ offering, and the unique combination of our landscape, people, culture and outdoor activities mean we can distinguish ourselves quite effectively. Hence we promote our destination rather than allow other marketing campaigns to decide our policy.

TDN: How do terrorist attacks/natural disasters/epidemics affect your country’s tourism flow?

M.A.: New Zealand is perceived as a safe destination (winning the Wanderlust safest destination award six years in a row). The country has been relatively far removed from international terrorism and has benefited as an alternative destination to the more ‘unsafe’ destinations. Epidemics like bird flu could be disastrous for New Zealand as it is an island nation. The government imposes strict border patrol and is highly prepared for outbreaks such as bird flu and other epidemics.

As a country we are a relatively peaceful destination, comparatively isolated enough to be at low risk of imported epidemics and terrorist attacks. We are also very well prepared for any emergency. Although there are always many factors to take into consideration, the growth in visitors to New Zealand over the last few years will be partly attributable to our reputation as a peaceful destination.

TDN: What are your destination marketing goals? By what means are you implementing these? Does this evolve innovations?

M.A.: Tourism New Zealand’s strategic goals are to:

• Increase the number of international holiday tourists to New Zealand by 1.32 million by 2006



• Increase the percentage of interactive travellers of the 2.55million forecast arrivals in 2006
  
  
• Increase the number of Interactive Travellers considering New Zealand as a tourist destination



• Improve our capacity to monitor the quality of the visitor experience and disseminate this information to stakeholders

Tourism New Zealand is tasked with marketing New Zealand internationally. We work to motivate New Zealand’s ideal international visitor (referred to as the Interactive Traveller) to come to New Zealand, to do more while they are there and to go back.

The main vehicle for Tourism New Zealand’s marketing activity is the global campaign - 100% Pure New Zealand. The 100% Pure New Zealand campaign is about conveying the unique experience that the interactive traveller can have in New Zealand that they could not experience anywhere else in the world. This campaign has been in operation since 1999, and aims to portray the unique experience that visitors can have in New Zealand. Our goals are to attract the sort of traveller that will appreciate and enjoy what New Zealand has to offer, who will treat our environment with respect, who will enjoy going off the beaten track and exploring the regions of New Zealand and is interested in our people and culture.

We are implementing this goal by targeting all the marketing that we do to reach this traveller, who we have identified through research. This means our media work, the events we are involved in, our advertising placements, are all carefully targeted to grab the attention of this traveller. This involves constant innovation – in order to grab their attention it is important to ensure that our marketing does not stand still. We continue to use the 100% Pure campaign, but it is constantly evolved, with new images and variations of the campaign, to give constant relevance to this audience. For example, we are currently in the process of increasing awareness of our food and wine offer and seasonal differences to our biggest market, Australia, as well as constantly looking to use our campaign in innovative ways.

The 100% Pure New Zealand campaign has been run by Tourism New Zealand over four years. Although New Zealand is a very small player in a very large global tourism market, Tourism New Zealand has used all the marketing tools that resources permit to give New Zealand a share of voice in the international tourism marketplace. Infusing the 100% Pure New Zealand global marketing campaign through all activities undertaken by Tourism New Zealand creates a compelling message to the world about what New Zealand has to offer.

The success of this approach is evidenced by recent research which shows that a high percentage of long haul travellers associate New Zealand with the brand values of the 100% Pure New Zealand campaign. The campaign is cutting through the proliferation of tourism offering to gain world attention.

Tourism New Zealand will continue to build on the 100% Pure New Zealand global marketing campaign over the following years. The global marketing campaign involves high amounts of PR and working closely with trade organisations.